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Russia’s Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodyozh), together with Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, recently completed a large study examining the lives of Russians aged 18 to 35. The project, titled the “Generation Index,” was followed in November by the publication of technical documentation from the Russian government’s Analytical Center outlining plans for a digital monitoring system under the same name. According to a report by the investigative project Sistema, the system includes a closed section that will allow authorities to track ideological indicators such as the influence of the “collective West,” positive attitudes toward members of the LGBTQ+ community, reasons for declining to have children, and the level of young people’s belief that Russia will win the war in Ukraine. If a region scores poorly on any of these measures, it will serve as grounds for “urgent measures.”
Formally, the study was intended to assess the contribution of young people to the country’s development. But as the newspaper Vedomosti reported in April, the project has a closed component that is focused on examining the influence of “extremists” on Russia's youth. Only part of the findings was released publicly, and the number of survey participants remains undisclosed.
The platform is divided into three parts: an open section, a closed section, and a thematic section. Only selected federal and regional officials will have access to the latter two. The open section collects standard statistics such as exam scores, participation in sports, and volunteer work. The closed section reveals what the authorities consider threats to young people. These include depression, anxiety, drug use, and dangerous levels of alcohol consumption.
A separate thematic block is dedicated to the war in Ukraine. The system will track the share of young people who believe in Russia’s victory in the “special military operation,” allowing officials to identify regions with low support for the war. Rosmolodyozh will submit these figures to the government annually for visualization on a map.
Regions will be color-coded on each indicator: green for normal levels (above 60%), yellow for moderate levels (40% to 60%) and red for risk zones (below 40%). If a region appears in the red zone for any criterion — including insufficient belief in Russia's victory in Ukraine or overly positive attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people — it will trigger “urgent measures.” The documents reviewed by Sistema do not specify what those measures will entail.
Last year in Udmurtia, voters in Russia’s presidential election were tracked using geolocation, The Insider discovered while reviewing materials from a closed presentation for officials. The presentation described the monitoring of attendance at polling stations for roughly 360,000 people, mostly public-sector workers. Officials were advised to compel voters to appear at polling sites, where they would be required to confirm their presence. This was done either via the “United Russia” mobile app, which collected users’ location data, or through SMS verification.